There are very many methods or schemes for losing weight. The obvious ones are, of course, to cut down on the food on ones plate; to carefully measure the amount of food served; to choose food of minimum calories; and to keep the caloric content at a prescribed amount for a given individual. This plus exercise--again of a minimum prescribed amount--should result in slow, but steady, weight loss.
However, these techniques are not always convenient--or even quite possible--in the modern world of business lunches, and social functions. One can hardly tell the chef, or the hostess, how many ounces of which foods are within current diet.
One could try to guess the permissable amounts of food, and eat only those portions. However, for an admittedly-heavy eater with a correspondingly good appetite, that small portion would be finished in no time, and the hungry eater would be left looking at the tantalizing morsels on his plate until the other, slower-eating guests are finished, and the plates can be taken up before the next course is served. As a point of etiquette, the plates cannot be picked up until all the guests are finished.
This invokes another of the schemes that may help. The eater, after taking a forkful of food, can count to a given number before taking another mouthful. This is a considerable help to slow down the mechanics of eating--and, incidentally, improve the mastication and digestion of the food--but it requires concentration and would seriously impede dinner conversation. Nevertheless this subtle delay tactic could help getting through a long dinner.
The object of this invention is to provide a means for an individual, on taking a fork of food, for example, being alerted to a given period of time for delaying the taking another forkful of food; without any visible or audible signal, or any counting or other mental effort on his part.
A further object of this invention is to provide an unobtrusive device that can be worn on a wrist during dinner to be actuated by a motion of the wrist in the process of feeding, and that can, after a given interval of time, signal, automatically, a desired interval between mouthfuls.